The incident of WWE superstars getting hold by the Saudi Arabia authority has become a major backstage issue, as of now. The entire roster had to stop by in the country for more than 24 hours despite having their scheduled show of SmackDown in the United States. WWE projected the entire thing as a ‘mechanical issue’ which made the superstars go irate as it was definitely not the truth.
Real reason why Saudi Govt. held back WWE stars
According to former WWE Spanish commentator Hugo Savinovich, (who has a lot of connections in WWE and Saudi Arabia) there’s major heat going on between Vince McMahon and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
Huge reported that Saudi Arabia owes $300 to $500 million to the WWE and Vince McMahon was angry about the fact that they did not want to pay during the Riyadh show. As a result, Vince McMahon cut the live feed off the local TV.
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Vince’s actions made the Crown Prince irate, in turn, and he ordered to have the WWE wrestlers be taken off Atlas Air just before the plane was about to take off. The ‘mechanical problem’ was not an issue, at all. If that would have been the cause then Vince McMahon could have arranged a different plane for the talents.
The situation made the superstars frustrated as they became the victims. BodyslamNet reported that many WWE wrestlers have refused to go to Saudi Arabia after “power play” showed by the Saudi government. Some even intended to quit the company after these much harassments,
“I was told after speaking to a source within the company who was on the trip to Saudi Arabia, that many of the members of the WWE Roster feel that they were detained and held in the country against their will as a ‘power play’ by the Saudi Government. There are many WWE Superstars who have said that they ‘will never go back’ to the country again following the incident and detaining in Saudi Arabia.”
According to Brad Shepard, the first-ever women’s wrestling match in Saudi Arabia between Natalya and Lacey Evans has also played a part in issues between Saudi Arabia and WWE. There’s no exact update on how this matter came into play. But there must have been a part of the audience who may have not liked the idea of seeing two women superstars wrestling inside the ring.
After what went down Brad Shepard also noted the following,
“According to a source in WWE, Vince McMahon said they won’t be returning to Saudi Arabia until they get their money owed.”
